SATPAL*, SURESH KUMAR, ANIL KUMAR, B. GANGAIAH, K. K. BHARDWAJ AND NEELAM
Forage Section, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding,
Directorate of Research, 3Department of Agricultural Meteorology,
Department of Soil Science, 6Department of Agronomy,
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
ICAR – Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad – 500 030 (Telangana), India
*(e-mail : satpal_fpj@hau.ac.in)
(Received : 22 October 2021; Accepted : 26 December 2021)
SUMMARY
An experiment was conducted at Forage Section Research Farm, CCS HAU, Hisar, during kharif seasons of 2015 to 2017 on single-cut forage sorghum to quantify the impact of input resources (variety, fertilizer, weed control, plant protection, irrigation) on fodder production while working out the energy use efficiency indices with weather variables excluding each management practice from full package of practices (FPP) and from the differences in crop performance, input impact was assessed. The study revealed that management practices contributed to 49% improvement in green fodder yield of improved cultivar of single cut forage sorghum. Absence of improved genotype, weed control, plant protection fertilizer and irrigation resulted in 39, 33, 31, 30 and 22 per cent loss, respectively, in productivity as compared to FPP. The radiation use efficiency and heat use efficiency were also highest in full package of practices and thus are more energy efficient. Seed treatment exclusion from FPP did not affected crop productivity and resource use efficiency significantly. Radiation and heat use efficiency of forage sorghum (185.35 kg ha-1 & 14.13 MJ-1kg ha1 °C day) with FPP, as compared to all other treatments except FPP-seed treatment. Helio Thermal Unit and Hydro Thermal Unit were not significantly influenced by different management treatments.
Key words:Fodder yield, input management, weather impact, agro-meteorological indices, thermalenergy efficiencies, forage sorghum